Dallas Diary - Day 10

Ryan Harrington updates from the team hotel on the morning of the Dallas Cup final. The defender offers an insight into preparations ahead of the clash with Fulham at Toyota Stadium on Sunday evening.

It has been a very intense week due to the fact we have had a lot of games in a short amount of time, so yesterday it was nice to get out and see a bit of America.

We went to a place in Fort Worth called the Stockyards. It’s a small area of the city, designed and styled in a way you would typically associate with Texas and cowboys. It was a good experience because most of us hadn’t seen anything like that before.

On the way back, we stopped by the AT&T Stadium, which is the home of the Dallas Cowboys. We couldn’t get into the ground because it is being prepared for Wrestlemania but we got together and had a team photo outside. It’s an impressive venue!

Once we got back to the hotel, it was all about stepping up our preparations for tonight’s final against Fulham - a match we are really looking forward to.

We made sure that we got enough sleep last night. We all went to bed quite early and then had a late breakfast this morning. We’ve been for a walk this morning - just 15 to 20 minutes - and it has helped to loosen off the legs.

It’s important now that every one of us are 100 per cent ready and we put in the best performance that we can. I know it will be the hardest game that we will have played in the tournament but it is nice that the final is being played at Toyota Stadium, the same place where we beat FC Dallas on Friday.

When we played at the Cotton Bowl, the grass was quite long and you had to punch the passes into each other. It was a large pitch and more difficult to put pressure on the opponents.

At Toyota Stadium, the grass is cut shorter and the ground is firmer. It suited our playing style better because we like to pass the ball around.

Since the opening match against Tigres, we have built some momentum. The lads knew that if we all stuck together we could get a good couple of results going and that has happened.

Fingers crossed - let’s hope everyone does the best they can and who knows what will happen tonight?